Wagner’s Birth in Leipzig

Wagner was born: Richard Wilhelm Wagner on the 22nd of May 1813 in Leipzig Germany. His father was a registrar in the police department.

Just before the time of his birth, Leipzig was an important centre for the arts and a place where Johann Sebastian Bach and Goethe had enjoyed many productive years but in the years following his birth, Leipzig was in a state of turmoil.

Napoleon had in the spring of 1813 attempted to retake Prussia after the embarrassment of his retreat from Moscow and he was advancing towards the Elbe. The three day Battle of the Nations was centred on Leipzig and allied forces laid siege to the town forcing Napoleon to retreat westwards. As a result of this terrible siege, a typhoid epidemic carried by the poisoned waters of the Elbe descended upon the town. Mainly this was caused by the fact that the corpses of soldiers and the carcasses of horses had been thrown into the river!

When the baby Richard was only six months old, in the late summer of 1813, this typhoid epidemic claimed Carl Friedrich Wagner who was ostensibly Wagner’s father……

THE LEITMOTIF

Wagner was arguably the greatest exponant of the Leitmotif. In simple terms this is a theme meant to represent a character in a dramatic work. In his essay "Opera and Drama" (1851) Wagner had raised the issue of how music could best unite disparate elements of the plot of a music drama. The leitmotif corresponds to this ideal.